It was 9 A.M. on a glorious spring morning more than 40 years ago, just as Mr. O'Hare and his sons were finishing up the chores on their Northeastern Iowa farm when the visitor arrived.
Gingerly he climbed from the high old car. Though as neat as a pin, he was very much a little old man with bowed legs and snow white hair.
He came to the point at once. He had grown to young manhood in these same yards and long ago had moved away; could he look about? Of course; he was welcome.
Off he went, looking this way and that. His mother's old home was gone, replaced by a newer and more modern one. The horse barn was gone and unreplaced. The cattle barn and adjoining sheds still stood. They were being used almost as he remembered.
He slowly turned, taking in the view of fields below; the creek, the old entrance road up the hill, the barns and corrals -- home! Memories flooded in, of sisters, brothers, and Mom and Dad, and -- What was that sound? Yes, it was!
It was the wind blowing through the line of tall windbreak pines. Great, old battered but beautiful and useful pines. They had stood against the Winter Gales for three-quarters of a century. They had stood the test of time!
They were his pines once. Now they belonged and protected the O'Hare family.
As he came back to his car to leave, the visitor smiled and said, "You know, when I was a small boy, so long ago, I took my little red wagon and Mom's shovel and went down to the creek, dug up those pines, struggled up the hill with them, dug the holes, planted and watered them -- just listen to them singing in the wind.
"I didn't plant pretty bushes, I planted something of lasting value; that could be depended on".
"You know, for a small boy I made the right decision!"
...And So It Is With ...
The Hubbard's
Roselawn Hampshire Flock
"Known From Coast to Coast"
Stud rams, Range rams, Quality ewes, all ages FOR SALE.
ONCE UPON A TIME ...